While performing a surgery, the normal practice is to make a single long incision on the patient's body where surgery is to be performed. Although this helps ease access to the site of surgery, the chances of infection also increase. Further, the recovery time of the patient is increased due to factors such as blood loss and extensive tissue damage. Further, at times, the surgeon may forget a foreign object in the patient's body, which could further lead to serious post-operative complications.
The next generation of surgery includes minimal invasive surgery (MIS) which is performed by making small incisions ranging from 1-3 cm, and using pencil-sized instruments for the surgery. The instruments are entered through the small incisions and passed through natural body cavities. Due to the small nature of incisions and minimum exposure of the interior portions of the body, healing is faster and chances of infection or of post-operative complications are less. Further, this surgical process leaves minimal scars on the skin surface. The pencil-sized instruments being used for MIS include robotic instruments which augment the process by increasing precision, articulation and manipulation and three-dimensional magnification of the site of surgery.
Most of the available robotic instruments used for MIS include a straight, elongated shaft which enters into the body of the patient through the small incisions. These shafts can carry imaging equipments such as a camera, as well as surgical instruments such as forceps and scissors. However, the straight, elongated shafts lack the capability of navigating around a healthy organ. If such a healthy organ is encountered between the entry site (port), i.e. the point of incision in the body wall, and the surgical site, the straight, elongated shafts cannot navigate around to reach the surgical site.
In light of the foregoing discussion, there is a need of a simple system and method for navigating around obstacles to reach the surgery site. While possessing navigational capabilities, the system should also be rigid enough to allow a surgeon to perform an operation at the surgery site in a steady manner. Moreover, the system should be capable of carrying a variety of instruments, such as forceps, scissors and needle drivers.